Title: I'll be there for youFandom: Pit Bulls and ParoleesSong: I'll Be There For You - The RembrantsLength: 3:03Contains: no standard content notes apply. Animal harm: clips in this vid depict the aftermath of animal harm, primarily via neglect; a few dogs also have visible injuries. There are no clips of anyone abusing an animal.Summary: "It's for more than three hundred pitbulls, the world's most misunderstood breed of dog; it's for parolees, the guys I hire because no one else will."

Thanks for this earworm are due to akemi42's Boys Folder and charmax's Unnatural Selection. Two songs, two vids in completely different genres, three fandoms. There's no reason for me to be humming them simultaneously. And yet:

"I like you a lot, lot, all I want is hot, hot, this monkey's gone to heaven, this monkey's gone to heaven, boys boys boys we like boys in cars."

Please get out, earworm.

Also: I guess this is an Adrian Veidt/James Ellison crossover? Or maybe Adrian Veidt/Some Robots.

It's for her watersports square at kink_bingo. You might think it's an unvidable kink, but she's done it -- using fannish sources. And it's amazing, and brilliantly done, and seriously you should go watch it now. It gives me great joy.

So, this morning I was sitting in a cafe, doing some reading and sipping an iced soy latte. (Because it is apocalyptic weather here in the Bay Area, where we are worried about drought and about fires already in January.)

And Johnny Cash's Mercy Seat started playing. "Hee," I thought, because it always reminds me of lim's amazing John Sheppard vid I Am/Lamb.

So I'm listening to Johnny Cash tell me about a crime of which he's totally innocent, you know, and doing my crossword puzzle.

And then ... wtf? The next song on the playlist is Iron and Wine's Evening on the Ground. Or, as I think of it, hollywoodgrrl's Evening on the Ground. ALSO a John Sheppard vid, also awesome.

Seriously, guys, if I was not listening to some barrista's vid songs playlist, that she used to enjoy fannishness while at work, I don't know what was going on -- that's one heck of a coincidence: three genres, three eras, connected only as Awesome John Sheppard vids.

I should totally have asked the barrista on duty whose mix CD it was. I could've made a new fannish friend!

For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I ended up finding and rewatching this segment of the Daily Show recently:

I love that segment SO MUCH.

And it reminded me that I meant to rec "All the Small Things" by Di. Yes. Really. A Colbert + Stewart vid to "All the Small Things." Doesn't it sound awesome already?

There's hilarious dancing, and weird performances, and running, and it's all fast cuts and cuteness. And it's really, really fun. This is going on the list of "things to watch when I'm feeling sad and blue," because my thoughtful, critical reaction to this vid is pretty much "\o/ YAY!"

When thingswithwings and I were watching a recent Smallville vid, that I billed to her as "awesome but kind of weird because I don't recognize half the clips in it," I pointed to a scene where Lex and Clark were on either side of a stained glass door panel. "Look! Separated by stained glass!" "Ah-ha," said thingswithwings, "on Smallville, slash is what happens when you take away the stained glass."* Then we agreed that this was a perfect description of the way the show works: just plain glass isn't enough. Then you can see what's on the other side!

(See, we're collecting Separated By Glass moments. These include, among others, the fabulous ice-wall in X2, and various people in hazmat suits, and things like that, but I also want to include Daniel in "Meridian." Because I think that Daniel/Death is really the SG1 OTP.** Daniel is separated from his death by glass! Daniel breaks through the glass trying to reach his desires! Daniel gazes longingly at ascension! He and ascension totally pass the broccoli test!)

Speaking of people who pass the broccoli test, we also watched a Once a Thief vid ("When I'm Up," by Lynn, Jill, and Kay, available here and determined that Vic and Mac have demonstrated on multiple occasions that they pass the broccoli test, but only when the broccoli is a gun. Or possibly a large knife, or a chainsaw.

Also, that vid made us want to go back and watch Once a Thief again, because seriously: trampoline fights. Chainsaw fencing. Stuck-on-top-of-a-just-married-car. Fighting with clowns. Moonwalking! Pop-up windows like we're in a VH1 music video! Two different endings to the series! Why Once a Thief is not in multi vids all the time for the hilarious visuals I don't know.

ALSO also, we were discussing what urban legends in Pegasus must be like. "Then he was passing by the gate, and three stones came through: tap, tap, tap" etc. And I said, okay, but the problem with an urban legends challenge is that there'll be a lot of stuff that's basically a direct translation of an urban legend into Pegasus. "Like," I said, "there's a serial killer in the backseat of the puddlejumper!" *pause* "It was John."

**** This is also true of John Sheppard. For example, the stained glass door to the gym closing on John in "Hot Zone" -- Atlantis and the Ancients say "no, John, you can't have that, and you can't even see it." Just saying.

** Also, John/pain is totally the SGA OTP. And unlike other OTPs? This one is acknowledged by the camera and the writing all the time! (See thingswithwings's proof in her vid here.)

... Also? Apparently? Someone on the numb3rs season 3 music list is a total fan, because 3x05 "Traffic" starts with the John Butler Trio's "Zebra." (Me: oooh, where's Ray?) And 3x06 "Longshot" starts with "Bohemian Like You." (Me: wait! who's that guy just hanging at your pad? Ronon! Oh, just some dude at the track. Sigh.) And a fan of astolat to boot, 'cause I think both of those are her vids.

This is the sort of thing you only realize when you watch episodes back-to-back.

I swear, if I see the word "vaunted" one more time... I mean, enough already. Vaunted Jedi serenity, vaunted stoicism, vaunted Gryffindor courage, vaunted Slytherin cunning, Harry's vaunted charisma, Hermione's vaunted intelligence, Snape's vaunted nose, Clark's vaunted innocence and Lex's vaunted evil, vaunted this, vaunted that. We get it. Enough. This has been bugging me for years, and I swear it's getting worse. Especially in HP fandom. The word "vaunted" is not all that common in English literature, and yet it has somehow slipped into fandom like all those damn sex words and it won't leave and no-one seems to really know what it means anyway. Blargh.

This message brought to you by the very last "vaunted Gryffindor honor and courage" that I could take. That is all.

***

On a similar note, I felt bad and unappreciative today when I was going though newly-downloaded songvids. I try to at least make it all the way through, unless they're just godawful, but today I hit three or four in a row set to music that drove me up the wall, or at least to the delete button, within thirty seconds. I mean, I don't insist on liking the music -- I can't stand Linkin Park, but I think ddcatwoman made a brilliant choice when she set a Smallville vid to "Doesn't Even Matter." And Kid Rock? Ick. But sockkpuppett's "Cowboy" rocks.

But there should be a rule. If the song was in the top ten most played for more than a few weeks, I don't want to hear it. Especially if it's all Angsty and Romantic. I didn't want to hear it on the radio for the four thousandth time. And I really, really didn't want to hear it in a context where I have to pay attention to the words to make sense of the vid. And I'm not going to be able to watch the songvid, because the song will make me grit my teeth and want to hit things.

On the other hand, I discovered that I hadn't moved sockkpuppett's kick-ass vid "Serenity" off my recently downloaded playlist, and ended up watching it again. And it made me want to go watch the Firefly pilot again, so clearly there was some saving grace to today's proof that 90% of everything is crap.

***

And, okay, this isn't a fandom crankypants problem, just a general crankypants problem. We're currently getting so many political messages on our house line that they sometimes come one right after another. Someone hangs up and it goes "ring ring" right away. In quick succession, now, we've had Bill Clinton (again), MoveOnPac (a real person telling us about our polling place), one from the election protection hotline (1-866-OUR VOTE, if there's anyone in the world who doesn't already know that number), and ACT reminding us about what we need to take to the polls. I am not kidding. This is what it's like to live in an urban area in a swing state. (And I have to admit that I'm contributing -- I make calls for MoveOnPac and Kerry/Edwards, which is what I'm doing this weekend instead of canvasing, since my foot's still acting up, grrr.)

Million Dollar Idea for the day: See, I was talking about my sorta-back-of-my-mind desire to vid Buffy/Spike to the Headstones "Cemetery" -- because I'm just so sick of gooey -- and then started talking about other Headstones songs.

So. Brilliant idea of the day: a compilation album titled "Songs For Kicking Things" (a la "Songs for Romance" or whatever). Kicking off with the Headstones "Fuck You," because that's really up there. And then some other stuff too. *waves hand negligently* Really, the songs don't matter so much as the cover with that kind of compilation.

*

Also, having just returned, I'm slowly going through my email... including the vidders list. Thus, I have just downloaded and watched Killa and Laura Shapiro's latest, and have fallen in love. Someday I'll be able to say more than "Scully. And. Wow. I mean. Because. Scully and... the sand. And. Wow."

Plus I've got all of these fabulous links to Vividcon vids from morgandawn's kick-ass reports and yay! I have so much new stuff to watch and poke at and decide if I like and yay! I mean. All this stuff I missed from the summer, plus all the stuff I missed because I just didn't see it announced or know the vidder. Look! mpoetess doing a Buffy/Faith, Giles/Ethan vid to Ghost! An Indiana Jones vid! Merry doing a Smallville vid! And gwyn_r has three new vids! *looks at vid reports* I have many happy days ahead. Whee! (Well, except I'm probably not allowed to download more vids until I clean up my downloaded vid playlist by filing the ones I like and trashing the ones I don't. *eyes playlist* *eyes temp folder* eeesh.)

I actually found two of the new Firefly vids practically the day after I got back. Let's just ignore what that says about me, yes? (But Here's Luck doing a FF vid! And Luminosity doing a FF vid!)

It's probably pretty sad that I really missed my vids in the middle of nowhere, huh?

*

In happy news: Carol Emshwiller is getting published in mass market paperback! YAY! Someone thinks she can kick some serious mass-market ass!

See, Carol Emshwiller is one of the most fabulous writers ever. Ever. And I try to recommend her to people, but they've never heard of her or can't find her or whatever. And now The Mount is coming out in MMPB! Published by Puffin Books! CAROL EMSHWILLER IS GETTING HER FIRST MMPB! I had despaired of her ever getting the recognition she deserves. Plus, her best novel, Carmen Dog, which has been out of print basically as long as ... well, as long as Mercury House has been in the hands of the new editor, is being reprinted in trade pb by Small Beer Press's Peapod Classics imprint (which published The Mount as a trade pb). Even better, it's coming out this November -- as a Christmas book.

Carmen Dog can be used in classes again, just like Ursula K. LeGuin wanted. I can recommend it to people without having to lend them my copy. *happy sigh*

What's even better is that I learned this in Other Change of Hobbit which, as Dave the owner says, survived via a "minor miracle." When I left, they were still employing irritating huffy people who looked at you very "you don't know that?" when you asked them questions, and they were positive that they were going out of business in July. But they're still there, they think they're going to hang on until Christmas at least, and they've replaced Irritating Huffy Guys 1 and 2 with the fellow who worked there when I was going in in high school -- he's got flyaway hair and is going bald and knows the answer to every question ("I read a short story with this plot. Who wrote it?" "That was in Astounding in 1953 but it's been reprinted in World's Best Science Fiction 6.") and is happy and friendly when he answers. He's the guy who will answer you in the same tone of voice, regardless of if you ask "hey, do you have Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories?" or "hey, do you know if Bruce Boxleitner's written a sequel to his fabulous novel?" or "where will I find the Liaden novels?" He rocks. (I thought of Bruce Boxleitner because I just picked up his novel for fifty cents at the library booksale. It looks like utter crap, but fifty cents!) So I spent more money than I should have, by which I mean I bought two whole mmpbs, because I was really cheered both by the change in the place, and by its continued presence in Berkeley. Woot!

Also while in Berkeley, I continued my Comparative Blended Mocha quest by getting one at Peets instead of my favorite place (Java City, which is ugly but does real blended mochas). And that was depressing, as it basically tastes like a frappucino. I mean, it's chemically and doesn't seem to involve real espresso. And they can't make it non-dairy as it's a mix with a dairy-based thickener. So I'm very disappointed in Peets. If there's no real espresso, I'm just incredibly bitter. I'll stick to the two independents -- Java City, with both bubble tea AND fabulous bread AND blended mochas made with fresh-we-just-made-it-espresso, and Berkeley Espresso, which has free wireless net and real blended mochas with ditto espresso. So nyah to Peets.

So when I talked about sex vids, two of the three were constructed-reality to "Closer" by NIN, yes? In two different fandoms?

Well, fairly recently I spotted another "Closer" vid. A Smallville constructed-reality, making advantageous use of RedK!Clark footage.

This makes me giggly.

It's not a tremendously good vid, really -- I mean, it's got good points an' all, but I won't be keeping it. The vidder, Mkitty3, chose to do a LOT of washed-out black-and-white in the middle, and whatever program she used to do that made it very jerky and uneven in appearance. And the sound seems a little flat, like the original mp3 wasn't balanced well.

Still, some neat things. I like the fast-paced clip sequences at the end, although the last notes of the song aren't accompanied by clips. And she picked some really really fabulous RedK!Clark facial expressions -- that "bring it on" in the bar and all that.

Mostly, though, I'm less amused by the vid-as-vid than by the vid-as-concept -- I mean! I'm tempted to keep it just to be three for three.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any vids based on other fannish things? Fanvids of fanfic, sorta thing? I know of two, shalott's "Seduction of the Desert Prince" (HL) and Bonibaru's "Sleep While You Drive" (SV), both based on stories. Anyone know any others? *ponders* I think there's one in Pros, but I can't remember anything about it, so that is completely unhelpful.

Clearly the whole "once a week" thing was more of an estimate than anything else. I'm home sick again today, so I'm in the mood for bouncy-upbeat music and giggling. Hence action vids rather than, say, unrequited love vids. I'm really not as shallow sex-and-violencey as my previous post and this one would imply. Honest.

Some people believe that action vids are automatically "recruiter" vids -- vids you can show to people to interest them in a show -- but I don't agree. For one, action is probably the least likely thing to interest me in a show, and the vids I've found to be best for recruiting are actually ThatFangirl's "China" (B5) and Laura Shapiro's "Rook" (XF), both of which are slow and atmospheric and character-driven. Plus, just because a vid is mostly about action and fighting and jumping around and has fast cuts doesn't mean that it doesn't have an internal narrative, or that the clips don't make more sense in context. Some action vids are so fast-paced, in fact, that they make very little sense to someone who isn't very familiar with the source, familiar enough to place clips in half a second. (These vids should all be fun even if you don't know the source, but they might make more sense if you do.)

Remember: just because a vidder's site is password protected is no reason to give up on ever seeing that vid. Vidders don't password-protect to keep you out; they password-protect to control bandwith, to keep TPTB out, and to make sure that everyone who downloads their vids knows that distributing them without the vidder's permission is not cool. It really is okay to ask a vidder for the password; they don't hate you, they don't care whether or not you're a BNF, and whatever you say will be fine.

So I was talking about the long, long list of comedy, satire, and parody vids I posted, and I said "mmmm sexy" to describe them. friede said "really?" And I had to explain that, no, not really, not sexy sexy, just very good vids. But it made me think about how rarely sex is actually the theme of a vid. Relationships, yes; sex, no. So here are some sex-themed vids, not at all consistently sexy, but dealing with sex a lot.

I link to vidder's sites unless they prohibit it, but you'll notice that a lot of links are to password-protected sites. Even if you don't usually do that sort of thing, really, it's okay to ask for a password -- vidders aren't trying to keep you out. They're trying to keep TPTB out, and they're trying to make sure that new fans understand that distributing other people's vids -- especially to TPTB -- is not okay, so they have you send a little statement explaining that you know that. So it's easy, it's painless, heck, sometimes it's even automated, and in return for asking you get fabulous vids. Where is the bad?

Edited 7:10 to fix stupid mistakes (see sineala's comment below). I should never post when on cold medicine.

The giant post of songvids this past weekend was in part a preface to an (attempted) weekly songvid rec/review, loosely grouped by theme. We'll see if I actually manage this every week. (Ha!) This week, three vids from rare movie fandoms.

So those of you who talk to me fairly often probably already know that I collect songvids. (And index them. Because I have obsessive organization problems.) I have 8+ hours of songvids. Really.

I just added some stuff to my comedy-favorites playlist. Good comedy vids are harder to make (or so I understand) than good drama, and a lot of the thing on this playlist are dramatic too -- constructed reality vids, for example, or vids where the song choice is underlying snark at characters or the concept of the show. So subtle funny, which is the best kind. A comic song does not a funny vid make, but sometimes it really works.

Anyway, I thought I'd post the contents of said playlist here in case anyone is interested. This playlist starts with broader humor and heads subtle as it goes -- 22 vids for a total of about an hour and ten minutes. The lj cuts are there for people who might only be interested in a few fandoms; if all them lj-cuts irritate you, you can just click through and read all the way down.

And the I go through a whole bunch of vignette-type vids, which can use one-shot jokes because they only last for fifteen seconds. One Sick Fuck Production's "Cheap Shots" and "Highlander - Cheap Shots" are a bunch of songs cut together, so a bunch of artists. ( Read more... )

Karoli's Smallville vid to "I Can Change" from the South Park Movie is one of the ultimate comedy vids. ( Read more... )

The vidder here probably didn't mean this vid to be funny. It's supposed to be a heartfelt mix of song and clips and emotions. But it is so hilarious. Because Phoenix vidded Mulder/Krycek. To Britney Spears. "... Baby One More Time." ( Read more... )

Then a vid where the song choice really makes the vid funny, although this one is intentional. Vyra did a Buffy season six vid to... "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." ( Read more... )

Songs without lyrics are often difficult to vid to, but Fangirl pulls it off with a Firefly vid to "Go Go Cactusman," the Cowboy Bebop theme. ( Read more... )

Then I do two constructed reality vids. Constructed realities aren't always funny -- Killa and T. Jonesy's "Closer" is the best constructed reality vid I've ever seen and isn't funny at all. Wrenching and horrible and really wonderfully done. /tangent.

The Las Vegas airport is creepy. Not that I didn't notice this the LAST time I flew through Las Vegas, but last time I was in a gigantic hurry and didn't notice the designated smoking area. There is in fact a tiny little glassed-in Designated Smoking Area with man slot machines. Basically it's slot machines, two chairs, and a lot of smoke. However, there's what I might call a small design flaw: the glass doesn't reach the ceiling. And there's no door. So when they say "designated smoking area," what they really mean is "this is the designated smoker area, but the smoke is permitted everywhere." So my eyes sting and my lungs hurt when I wait at my gate, as it's a mere 30 yards from the designated smoking area. Bleh. Also, I am still creeped out by the slots-in-airport thing they have going. So, so wrong.

But I really scored. I grabbed the exit row window seat that has no chair in front of it on both legs of my flight. Meaning lots and lots of legroom, plus the handy fold-out tray that lets you have only a half-tray unfolded for your drink. You can't sit in an exit row without talking to the check-in agent, and I was lucky enough to have an non-harassed person who had the time to change my seat assignments. And I have a down comforter in my carry-on. I may sleep the best I ever have on a red-eye. *happy sigh*

And I downloaded new vids to investigate and evaluate before I came to the airport. Life is good.

I've had five-six vids in my "recently downloaded/evaluate" playlist for three months. Somehow I think the fact that I still haven't decided whether or not I like them or want to keep them means I probably don't. But OTOH, I just a little while ago found Lithium Doll's Firefly vid to "Running For Home" (Matthew Good) and it rocks a lot. (At bonicus amicus alter idem est.)

***

The woman I was sitting next to on the second half of my flight was what I might politely call a ( total idiot )

Still, here I am in Philadelphia, where the outside temp is 25*F. And I got all my stuff here without breaking the ceramic jar my aunt made for me and without losing anything on the plane. Well, permanently, anyway. I was tired and left my book on the plane because I'm an idiot and had put it in the thingy on the back of the chair next to me. But then I went "wait, where's my book?" And got it back.